If you are hosting a corporate event whether this means a launch party or Christmas functions for your staff, it’s important that you create the right mood and the right impression. A good function can help you to make a good impression on potential business partners and clients, it can help you to build contacts and network and it can help you to win the loyalty of your staff and show them your gratitude.

One of the factors that will help you to get more from your corporate events will be your choice of colours, not only for the function venues themselves, but also for your clothing down to your choice of tie. It’s surprising what a large impact this can have on people that you interact with if only on an unconscious level, so here we will look at how this works in more detail and which colours you should choose in your function venues and in your clothing.Psychological Impacts
Apparently the colours we wear can alter the psychological impression we make on other people and it can change the way they view us. For instance red is apparently a colour that is associated with leadership, and if you look to the media you can see this as the most popular colour for many of the ‘main’ characters in films and cartoons. If you want to instil leadership and remind everyone you’re the boss at Christmas functions then, a red tie might just help you to get this message across without making it too obvious (unlike ‘I’m the boss’ cufflinks…). Meanwhile if you are wearing orange this can apparently make other people more aggressive towards you and obvious this isn’t something you’re going to want. Blue has a calming effect making it great for use in your decorating (whereas orange might make people more uncomfortable), while black is the colour of ‘professionals’ and makes people more serious – which makes it appropriate for many corporate events too.

Contrast
Colours are also useful if you want things to stand out and this is a great way to draw attention to things. If you want someone to look at your display during a tradeshow for instance then you should use a red or bright yellow table cloth and this will work even better in darker surroundings. Likewise if you want to stand out yourself then again that red tie can be particularly useful.

Associations
It’s also worth mentioning the way that colours have developed associations in our brains as a result of the way they are often used. When we see colours we tend to be reminded of certain things – for instance green is associated with both money (because money is green) and nature (because trees are green) which makes it a great colour to use in your decorating for your function venues.

At the same time black as mentioned is associated with professionalism and a corporate environment as is dark blue. If you want this to be a very sensible and corporate event then dark blues are a great colour to use.

Finally you will likely have a brand and a logo and in this case there will probably be colours that people associate with your company. Echoing these in both your function venues and your clothing is a great way to strengthen your brand.

The above guest post is written by James Houston who works with event management company and share tips and ideas on events management through his guest posts.